AmandatheGreat

Hello Everybody!!

I am considering applying to Bennington ED however I am not sure I could afford it if I got in without any financial help so I was wondering. . .
How much financial aid does Bennington usual give out?
How much merit aid?
Are they generally generous?
If there are any current students or parents of current students-- How much financial aid did you recieve?

Thanks for your time and sorry for all the questions!!

mest

Amandathegreat

Bennington gave my s a half tuition grant that is renewable over 4 years and a small loan package. They were the most generous of the schools we applied to.

AmandatheGreat

mest

Half tuition is pretty nice deal, however thats still about 19000 per year plus room and board. Goodness college is expensive!

PS Thanks for the speedy response.

chris'mom

My son was accepted this year and Bennington met all need after the FAFSA EFC with a grant (part scholarship part grant), subsidized stafford loan ($3500), and work study. I am divorced, but apparently the CSS profile did not change their determination of need in our case.

allthosethings

The strength of your application will also factor in to how much money Bennington gives you. I know they can be very generous if they want you to attend. The tricky part is with ED you kind of commit not knowing how much you will get, right?

mest

amandathegreat,
allthosethings brings up a very good point. My s considered early decision. One of the things you lose with that is being able to compare offers. Although in one way it would have been nice being done earlier, there were also some advantages to going through the regular decision process. It actually reinforced my son's opinion of Bennington.

In my earlier post I forgot to include the Stafford loan we were offered-but yes it is still expensive!

AmandatheGreat

mest and allthosethings,
I haven't even thought of it like that. I think it might be more of a plus to apply regular decision because of the possible increase in financial aid. I will certainly consider whay you two have told me

pretzelbreaker

I'm a transfer student (a group that is notoriously shortchanged in financial aid packages) and Bennington gave me a 36k merit scholarship. If you have the stats, and they want you, they will find a way for you to come.

KK18

Oh yay, i´m wanting to apply ED next year too and am a little worried about FA. I love the school, but that is a heck of a lot of money to hand over, and i´m wondering if i might get more money somewhere else....

mest

kk18
As was discussed above there may be advantages to applying regular decision if you are looking for merit or financial aid. This gives you the opportunity to compare offers from different schools.

There is a lot of advice in the financial aid forum that may be helpful. That said, my s loved Bennington after his visit last fall and was thrilled to be accepted. He has decided to accept Bennington's offer which in our case turned out to be the best package.

KK18

Ok, I´ll take a look at it, thanks!